Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Over the past few weeks, a number of youth and adults from FLC, folks from the Gateway Center and members of our greater community have volunteered their time and creative energy to design and paint the new Laser Tag Game Center.

The addition of the Laser Tag to the Gateway Center came when the supplies from a local business were purchased and donated to the community center. Over the past few weeks, over twenty people worked together to make the feat of decorating thirteen game room wall panels, the suiting-up room, and two sides-floor-to-ceiling-mural- of a 40 foot hallway.The right hallway design consists of a city sky line that includes bridges, buildings and street lights.

The left hallway design consists of subway cars with windows full of passengers. The paints used in the hallway and suit up room was a mix of spray paint and acrylics. The paint in the game room, needed to be sensitive to black light, so only fluorescent spray paint was used. If you look carefully at each painting in the game and suiting up rooms; that each speck of paint works to convey a written or visual message that comes directly from scriptures in the Bible.

The Gateway Center, located on 31 Water Street in Jamestown, NY, is a community center focused on reaching out to the needs of community and provide a safe space founded in Christian values and mission. (This piece is taken from Micah 6:8)

While the center has the new laser tag game room, it also is home to:Alcoholic Anonymous Chapter Meetings, Angel Food Ministries. Community Helping Hands,The Depot Thrift Store & Furniture Showroom, E2CC BOCES Adult Education, Family/Youth Center & Alpha Cafe, Soaring Up Skate and BMX Park, His Way Archers, Love INC (In the Name of Christ), Mental Health Association / H.O.M.E. (Housing Options Made Easy), Saint Susan’s Soup Kitchen,UCAN (United Christian Advocacy Network), and Western NY Food Bank Distribution Center. The laser tag game room will open to the public March 2011. Prices and times are yet to be announced.

While helping with this project, FLC youth and families had the opportunity to serve the community with their gifts and see how partnering in ministry helps to serve the holistic needs of our neighbors in the Jamestown area. As Christians, we are called to be, "... the light of the world--like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden."(Matthew 5:14). By helping with this project, we had the chance to shine our light and become partners with a local ministry that shines the light of Christ everyday. Thank you to everyone who helped with this service project, the Gateway Center for inviting us to share in this mission and God for giving us the chance to use our gifts by painting. This project truly was a lesson in light!

Renee and I became friends this last summer as we painted an outdoor mural together. As we climbed up on that scaffold each time, we would talk about our families and lives as we worked. We shared the work. We shared time. We came from a place of being acquaintances (and my how many acquaintances there are in the world), to becoming real and genuine friends (How few true friends do we really have in life?)

We look out for each other and push each other to take the next step into the yet unseen future.Thank you Renee for being my new - and real- friend.

(The image above is a section of a new mural we worked on together in February. This section is our self-portraits. :))

Monday, February 21, 2011

I have a friend in my neighborhood who inspires me to take chances, go for the gusto, and appreciates who I am. Her name is Lois and if she knew I was writing this concerning her, she'd say something like "Oh stop!" and blush.

She is the person that proof read my papers when I was going to college.She is the person that even in the midst of great physical challenge; gets in her car and drives her granddaughter to school each day.She is the person that hugs me and tells me I'm beautiful; even when I'm in my sweats and my hair isn't done.She is the person who challenges me to keep pressing on to pursue my dreams - even when the dream isn't too clear yet.She is the person that gave me a big white platter when I graduated from College. On one of the first days we met we sat outside in the sunshine and ate fruit and cheese off a big white platter.

She knows that details matter. The detail that matters most to Lois is love and her love is an inspiration to me.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

I'm a hodgepodge of so many different nationalities that it's often hard to keep track. Cherokee, Pennsylvania Dutch, German, French, Irish, English and even Welsh! I've been mistaken for Greek, Italian and Polish at times. I live in a community that was primarily founded by Swedish and Italian immigrants - and I have no genealogical connection to either group.

Someday, I'd love to visit each place that is a part of my family history. If I had to start today, though I'd head to Wales - take in the green rolling hills, the sea air and walk on the ground my ancestors tread.

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Things I wish I had said...

"I am not afraid, I was born to do this. Joan of Arc

"Everything that is done in the world is done by hope." - M. Luther

Call on God, but row away from the rocks. - Indian Proverb

If it can be verified, we don't need faith... Faith is for that which lies on the other side of reason. Faith is what makes life bearable, with all its tragedies and ambiguities and sudden, startling joys. - Madeline L'Engle